WORD CHOICE seems like an odd thing to focus on, unless you are a writer and you are revising. What else do writers do but choose words? When we are writing our first hot run through we may throw any word down - just to hold the place. We might call a sunset beautiful. It may be beautiful, but it is unlikely we'll leave it like that in revision. We choose our words carefully during revision. Every word should be hauling its weight and more. We should look at a word as if we were planning a dinner party - each guest must have something to add or no invite. In a novel you might have around 80 thousand words so there is quite a bit of choosing to do. You might think, that unlike poetry, you can afford some bumf, but you'd be wrong. For instance, I just chose the word bumf (which can also be spelled bumph). It means extra paper - documents etc... so isn't exactly the correct word - but it is the right word. Why? Because readers will understand the meaning as I've intended it, and they will like the sound of it. It has a satisfying mouth feel and it isn't cliche.
If you are a writer you'd best like words. Shakespeare invented over 1700 of our common words by changing nouns into verbs, changing verbs into adjectives and putting different words together in new ways. You can invent words (I did it all the time as a child) and you don't have to be a genius to get away with it.
Perhaps you do. Hard to say. But why not leap into it? The point is to make your words work. If they won't pick up the shovel, then give them the old heave-ho. Heave-hoify them - see what I did there?
Now I must get to my own revising. I'm a few days away from getting this draft done and then I'll have two weeks to shine it up. See you on the flip side!
2 comments:
Word choice can make all the difference in writing, Jan. I think one of the many reasons is that we don't have the visual to express nuances. So, for instance, we might hold a place by writing the word 'smiled.' But there are so many sorts of smiles, that mean so many different things (especially once you add culture into the mix). So, the writer has to choose a word (smirk, grin, half-smile, etc...) to express a more precise meaning. The linguist in me just adores this post!
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